Why I Run: Reason #1

So you would think that I’m the ‘you gotta plan to the T otherwise you’ll fail’ type, right? Well, apart from life and studying and success, no… shock horror, I know. I went for a run last Tuesday morning. It was unplanned, without a set route and totally unexpected. It was also one of the best runs I have experienced in months.

It was one of those runs where I forgot that I was running. If you’re a runner, you’ll know exactly the fulfilling feeling I’m referring to. For those non-runners but interested parties, what I mean is that the action of my legs moving and the focus of my mind was so successful that it took a sudden shift…

To being totally and completely natural. This is something that you simply cannot force. Sometimes, it will just happen and you love the moment, you’ll smile at it even because you know that how rare this moment is.

It doesn’t come around too often. We have to embrace it for all that it’s worth when we feel it. Now, I don’t know about you, but forgetting that you’re running tells me that it’s working.

Stress

This is one of the biggest reasons that I run.When the little things in every day life are really getting under my skin or if there’s something that’s really getting to me and I’m struggling to deal with, or if I’ve simply had a bad day for whatever reason… I run.

It helps in a way that is almost too strange to explain. For those of you who are reading this who are runners, you know what the bizarre but liberating feeling I’m referring to. You’re probably now smiling because you know exactly what I mean when I say: “the best part of running is when you forget that you’re running”.

But, for those of you don’t run and absolutely no idea what this ‘feeling’ is, my only and best advice to you is this:

Run

I cannot think of any other moment in my entire life that I have felt anything even remotely similar to the feeling of ‘forgetting that you’re running’. That includes working, studying, eating, sleeping.

I think that’s kind of the point, though. That’s one of the reasons so many runners stick to running, because it gives them that irreplaceable, happy feeling that they have found in no other sport. I mean, don’t get me wrong I’m sure football has its feel good factor. But I have to side with running, call me biased. This is what it looks like on me, in my own little world of running.

The Buzz

Okay, so non-runners, it feels a little like this. You know how red bull supposedly gives you wings? That’s #thebuzz. It’s like a really fast day dream. One moment you’re running, the next you’re in the midst of a thought process.. and the very next, it’s like you’ve snapped out of it as fast as you dived in and you find yourself in amazement that you didn’t fall over.

It’s like we leave this world for a few seconds. But it’s a refreshing feeling every time and you feel as though it was worth the run. It’s served its purpose and you find yourself smiling because ‘you felt it again’.

Now, I speak to the minority. You readers that have never gone for a run in their life. For whatever reason you have for not running, I have two things to say.

Firstly, I get it. I don’t know your ‘why’ for why you don’t run. And that’s okay. I don’t need to.

But secondly, I would love to. I would love to know why, so that I could encourage you to go for it. Millions of people have billions of reasons why they don’t run. Why they don’t want to, feel they need to, feel they should or maybe even feel they can at all.

A Blog of Love

But to those people, I ask you this. Please know that I don’t blog because I want to force you to do anything. I’m not here to moan, brag or be pushy. I’m here to encourage you, because I want for you to feel the emotion that gives you wings.

Running brings out the better, happier, healthier person in me. I am at my best when I run. Not because I’m faster than someone else. But because running makes me feel good. It’s as simple as that. Running gives you a buzz and I’d love you all to feet it.